Archive for the Interview Category


Interview with Yuri Visual Novel Studio Élan

February 10th, 2019

Hello and welcome to a very special interview. After the release of Visual Novel Highway Blossoms (which has the honor of being one of two I have actually enjoyed), creator Josh Kaplan launched a brand new venture – Studio Élan, dedicated to creating Yuri Visual Novels.

On the cusp of their first major release, Heart of the Woods, (my review of the first chapter demo looked pretty good), we took some time to talk to Josh and his team about their work.

 

 

Q: You launched Studio Élan right after completing Highway Blossoms, what was your motivation in putting together a VN studio focused on specifically Yuri Visual Novels?

A. There are a couple reasons! The most plain is simply that I think it’s a comparatively underrepresented genre in the west, compared to otome and bishoujo games. Admittedly, the number of yuri games available in English has really skyrocketed in the past couple years. Still, it’s definitely a smaller genre, and there are also very few developers devoted exclusively to it.

Aside from that, though… We’ve been really fortunate with how well-received Highway Blossoms was, and I wanted to use the opportunities its success has provided to be able to carry on its legacy, so to speak. That is, to continue to make games with a similar sort of wholesomeness and attitude. In addition, I wanted to help give a platform to other creators. The vast majority of our team consists of LGBT+ women, which is a pretty far departure from the HB dev team.



Q: There’s a surge of Yuri VNs inside Japan and in the West right now – what do you see as areas that haven’t been explored…and should be?

A: For one, I think it would be nice to see more stories that feature older characters, even if it’s college aged as opposed to high school. In Japan in particular, the majority still tend to fall within the “high school romance” category. Of course there are notable exceptions like Seabed, but still. Also, games that include characters who are trans or nonbinary.

Finally, while this is more of a personal taste kind of thing, it would be great to have more games where the romance isn’t the central part of the story, but more of a subplot, similar to most mainstream media nowadays. In fact, that’s one element that we make sure to incorporate in all of our own games – the fantasy aspect is just as important as the romance.



Q3: In Heart of the Woods, the story is a “ghost story” but is not a scary one, what did you want to explore with this work?

A: We really wanted to go for a fairytale feeling. There’s a certain whimsy and wonder to the stories that you hear growing up, where you don’t necessarily question everything that’s happening but instead let yourself get wrapped up and pulled along. We took a lot of inspiration from Disney movies as well, both in tone and aesthetic. I used Disney as a sort of guideline as to “how dark” the story could get. My barometer was always “could I see this happening in Frozen or Snow White?” Although we do have a couple different endings for the story, it was always crucial to us that the “real” ending is a happy one.



Q4: This is a question for adirosa, your game designer:  What was your inspiration for the look of Heart of the Woods?

adirosa: For HOTW, the direction I was given for it was to keep it simple and modern. I’ve always been very invested in game accessibility and giving players a comfortable reading experience, so I decided to couple these together. Queen at Arms and their option to change font sizes + Autumn’s Journey‘s alternate font options is what inspired me to start this, and I’ve been trying to expand on the accessibility options in the games I work on.

I was also given the direction to make it clear who the POV character was for each scene, so I did heavy colour theming. Persona 3 Portable‘s alternate GUI colour scheme based on the male/female protagonists and idol culture’s character colour theming is what inspired me to take this approach with HOTW, and I’ve taken that approach to marketing materials as well to tie it in. (Fun fact, the HOTW game theme colour is the dark teal of the trees in the logo!)

I’m personally a huge fan of the rococo and art nouveau art movements, and I try to incorporate elements where I can! The inspiration isn’t heavy in the HOTW UI but there are little bits (like the NVL border and the cover image border) that will tie the Élan games together lightly. I’m super extra and I can’t stop putting those elements in.



Q: Music is also very important to helping set the mood for a VN. Sarah, tell us a little bit about the place the music has in Heart of the Woods.

Sarah: Heart of the Woods is a magical fairytale, but one where magic isn’t something to be taken lightly. I wanted to reflect that in the music I contributed — you’ve traveled out to an unfamiliar town in the middle of nowhere in the depths of winter for a paranormal investigation, and you don’t know what you’re going to find there. There’s a lot of uncertainty and trepidation, and you’re starting to realize it might be more dangerous than you anticipated when you left home. You don’t know if you’ll make it back safely.

The first piece of music that I wrote for the Heart of the Woods soundtrack was “Into Another World,” which was used for the opening train sequence, though I didn’t initially know where it was going to end up in the story. It was my audition for the project, and I wanted to try figuring out exactly what Heart of the Woods should sound like and really define it in one song. It ended up being a sort of template for the wintry and spacious sound of a bunch of the other music on the soundtrack, enveloping you with icy orchestral strings as twinkling piano and chimes echo off into the distance.

“Why Am I Here” is one with a bit of a personal story behind it. It was written during a period in my life where I was evacuating from a storm while also dealing with a sudden emergency, and for a few days found myself unexpectedly alone and adrift in an unfamiliar city wondering what in the world I was doing with my life. It was written in one sitting and was basically just me pouring out my emotions into music, though I didn’t really recognize it as such at the time. It ended up being adopted as Maddie’s character theme because it really mirrors a lot of what she’s dealing with after Tara has dragged her along to Eysenfeld.

Of course, this isn’t just a bleak and depressing story, it’s still a romance VN and there are pockets of warmth and comfort to be found here too! There’s a bit of that warmth mixed into the soundtrack in places, such as the character themes for Morgan and Abby. Morgan is an odd one but she means well, and I wanted her theme “Restless One” to make you feel like “ah, this girl is someone I can trust!” when you hear it.

Meanwhile, Abby’s theme “Communion” is a song where I tried to do a lot of things at once, with feelings of isolation and angst and love all rolled together in a string quartet arrangement that took forever to get just right. Visual novels can be a lot of hours of reading and so there’s not much avoiding having to hear to the same songs on repeat a few times, so I really like it when a song can be versatile and carry different emotions depending on the context it’s being used in.



Q:  What’s the structure of Studio Élan like, and how do you all work together?

Most of us wear a few different hats. minute went from being “just” the programmer to also being an editor as well as contributing some creature designs and background art. adirosa not only does the GUI for our games, she also created our new studio logo, graphics for promo materials, our trailer, and more. Plus, every member of the team is encouraged to give feedback on the story, release plans, pretty much everything. It was really important to me that really feels like part of the team, rather than just being instructed on what to do.

 


Q: Heart of the Woods seems to me to be a step forward in reader engagement with sound and movement integration. Can you speak to some of the enhancements you’ve made to the VN experience with Studio Élan?

minute: The scripting for Heart of the Woods is very much my love for visual novels coming through. It’s honestly one of my favorite mediums- its accessibility, format, and history means a lot to me as both a creator and avid reader.
That said, it’s also a medium with a lot of room to grow. In the past few years visual novels have been extending into the western audience in a great way- so many new, incredibly skilled creators are pushing the boundaries of genre and target audience with their work. HotW is scripted with these new advancements in mind, but with the classics of VNs very close to my heart. I wanted to make the characters feel alive, with tiny movements or subtle expression changes to offset the limits of a traditionally-styled VN. It’s a process of making sure the game is both fun to play and easy to read, which I hope we’ve achieved so far!

The sound design is a constant back and forth – you’d be surprised how many variants of “tree branch snapping” we can go through to find the right one. But in the end, as a team we are all focused on trying to make every aspect of Heart of the Woods enjoyable. To that end, it’s also why our accessibility options are so extensive! adirosa and I spent a long time trying to make sure every option is equally viable for every reader – so no matter how someone chooses to play, we hope they’ll have a good time.


Q: What creative work has inspired you, personally and artistically? Are there any games, VNs, comics, animation that has informed your work on Heart of the Woods?

minute: Fate Stay/Night is my biggest inspiration for choreographing and visual directing!

Sarah: For this particular soundtrack, Yuki Kajura and Ryou Mizutsuki were my biggest influences.

adirosa: I draw a lot of inspiration from the English visual novel community in general. The HoTW UI was inspired by the more sci-fi UIs Auro-Cyanide used to do (such as Break Chance Memento) and Dischan’s UIs in general like Dysfunctional Systems Ep.1 and Juniper’s Knot.

Josh: Aside from what I mentioned above, I get a lot of inspiration from music like Nightwish, as well as the book series The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.



Q9: What does the future hold for Studio Élan?

Hopefully, a lot! Every one of us is in this for the long haul. We already have our next couple VN’s planned out. We’re going to be starting a comic for our Patreon, and we also hired a merchandise designer to help out with, well, merch designs. Eventually, we’d like to try making games other than VN’s, as well as other forms of media in general.

We have a couple long-term, grand dreams as well. First and foremost, it would be wonderful if we could do this for a living, rather than a hobby. Additionally, like many if not most other western VN devs, we’d love to be able to find some success in Japan.

Ultimately, for me at least, I just want to continue making stuff with this particular group of people. We have really great chemistry and, while there have definitely been some stumbling blocks, I think we have the potential to make something truly great. I hope that someday, there will be people out there consider us their favorite developers, and who get excited when we announce a new project. I hope that the stories we tell can have an impact on someone the same way that the books I read and games I played help shape me as a person today.

 

Thank you very much to the folks at Studio Élan for their time and we look forward to the full VN of Heart of the Woods, which is being released this week!  Check out the Studio Élan website for details of the VN. From the Studio Élan Twitter feed:  Heart of the Woods is also going to be a participating Steam Trading Card game as well! So take a look and let us all know what you think in the comments. ^_^





LGBTQ: Barnes & Noble Interview with Gengoroh Tagame

July 3rd, 2017

Brigid Alverson, writing for the Barnes & Noble blog has a wonderful interview with My Brother’s Husband creator Gengoroh Tagame. If you’ve ever wanted to ask him about being an out gay manga artist in Japan, here’s your chance to find out!

Openly Gay Manga Creator Gengoroh Tagame Talks Breaking Barriers with My Brother’s Husband

I was especially gratified to learn that Futabasha was supportive of his idea right from the start. As I keep saying, there’s someone on the staff there who is an ally.

 





Interview with Anthropologist Dr. Jennifer Robertson

July 21st, 2016

jrfrontWelcome back to Takarazuka Week here on Okazu! Tonight is the premier of the Takarazuka performance of Chicago at Lincoln Center. (And I have never, in my life, seen Lincoln Center push a show as hard as they are this one.) I’m already receiving reports that the show is delightful.

To celebrate and get in the mood before seeing this show tomorrow night we have a very special interview today. If you are at all familiar with Takarazuka, you know of Dr. Jennifer Robertson‘s book, Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan.  It’s my great pleasure today to have Jennifer here to talk about Takarazuka. Please welcome her warmly. ^_^

 

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1. What brought your attention to Takarazuka in the first place?
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As I share in my book, Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan (2001 [1998]), I grew up in Japan, where I’ve lived for over 20+ years. During that time, someone gave us a Takarazuka LP that was added to my family’s record collection. But although that early exposure doubtless played some subliminal role in my later interest in the Revue, it wasn’t until 1976 (in Japan) that I began to notice Takarazuka actors on various television shows. The otokoyaku (man-role players) stood out as they were so much taller than the average Japanese woman (and many men) and exuded a charisma and confidence that was rare among women in Japan. I saw my first Revue performance at the Tokyo Takarazuka theatre in April 1985—The Golden Wings starring Asami Rei as the lead otokoyaku. In my opinion, she and Mine Saori, who is starring in the Revue’s Lincoln Center performance of Chicago, are two of the most talented and magnetic otokoyaku. (I know that dates me, but in the few shows and a dozen or so DVDs I’ve seen since publishing my book, I still think that Asami and Mine stand out!) Since retiring from the Revue, Asami has gone on to a successful career in theatre (as have many Takarazuka actors), and Mine is part of the new veteran-actors troupe organized by the Revue’s administration. Interestingly, the musumeyaku (woman- role player, lit. “daughter-role player, as the “woman” should be an innocent naïf), in The Golden Wings was Ichirō Maki, “officially” an otokoyaku. The Revue often assigns an otokoyaku to perform the role of women who (like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, another Revue standard) are far from naive and know a thing or two about sex! It was at that 1985 performance that I experienced the frisson of eroticized energy exuded by the Revue actors and observed the way in which the mostly female audience was transported by it to another world. More than the action on stage, however sizzling, I decided to study the Revue because of the intimate and familiar relationship I witnessed that evening between the fans and the actors.

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2. In your opinion, has there been any visible change in the way otokoyaku and musumeyaku roles are performed, or in the “gendering” of Takarazuka roles? Tomu Ran in Gyakuten Saiban ~ Yomigaeru Shinjitsu, for instance, was much less strutting and “drag king”-y and in fact, for the first time read as “a guy” to me. Have you noted any changes?
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I haven’t seen enough many live shows since 1998, and have watched only a dozen or so DVDs, also TV broadcasts, to make an informed comparison, but the fact is that Revue actors have long experimented with different styles or methods of performing the man-role. I’ve written about the Revue’s experiments with “androgyny”—i.e., creating a more “gender neutral” (chūseiteki) type of otokoyaku since the late 1960s (related in part to having otokoyaku perform the roles of charismatic and carnally experienced women). Each otokoyaku is encouraged to develop her own style of masculine performance, and invariably that includes learning from actual male actors (regardless of ethnicity, nationality, etc.) whom they admire in some capacity. Most otokoyaku will blend, tweak, and refine the characteristics of several male actors or male celebrities. Regarding your observations about Tomu Ran, it would be interesting to find out about her mix of influences. As for musumeyaku, since their femininity must highlight in contrast the masculinity of the otokoyaku, especially in the case of “golden couples” (goruden kombi, i.e., the leading man and woman of a troupe), they need to take their lead from the otokoyaku regardless, to some extent, their own sources of stylistic influence.

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3. What, if any, changes have you seen in Takarazuka fandom?
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I think it’s important to remember that in the early 20th century, Takarazuka was billed as wholesome family entertainment and attracted mixed (female and male) audiences. Only since the postwar period, and in the context of increasing (and competing) forms of theatrical and mass media entertainment, has the Revue’s audience and fan-base reflected a narrower demographic profile. That said, the stereotype of fans as “young girls” is erroneous, and continues to circulate because, in my view, many (especially male) critics cannot figure out how to explain the infatuation of mature (and/or married) women with the Takarazuka actors, and especially with the otokoyaku! The majority of fans for the past thirty years if not more have been women in their 30s and older, many of whom are married. I would be curious to learn whether, and what percentage (if such a statistic can be generated) of, unmarried women—and today a large number of women are delaying or even postponing marriage—are Takarazuka fans. I will bet though, that the huge number of ‘Zuka fans from Japan who will descend on NYC over the next week are likely in their 30s and older, and probably either employed or retired!

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I agree entirely with that and won’t take that bet. My experience with Takarazuka has been mostly adult, often middle-aged women filling the audience. Although recently I’ve seen younger (20s-30s, fans.

4. What do you think of of overseas fandom? Is it different or the same? Looking for that same something as Japanese fans, or completely different things?

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I have not researched overseas fandom, which for an enterprising social scientist, would be a great topic. One could probably explore Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Korean fan blogs/websites, but I haven’t done that in any systematic way. I know that the Revue has a large East Asian following (in addition to Japanese tourists/fans living abroad); the Cosmos Troupe (Sora-gumi) debuted in Hong Kong in January 1998! I would imagine that many of the things that Japanese fans find enticing about the Revue would be true of other East Asian fans—especially perhaps those who are jaded about corporate glass ceilings and patriarchal social structures. I mention this because in my research, I found that many fans are attracted to the otokoyaku not simply for erotic reasons but because she is a female who is capable of negotiating and succeeding on stage in activities often foreclosed to females offstage in society. How they parlay that appreciation in their everyday lives to “make a difference” is much harder to assess. That said, one of the ways in which the Revue has influenced the social life of females off stage (in Japan at least, and perhaps elsewhere) is by stimulating a butch-fem subculture (like host clubs, fan clubs) and attendant communities.

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5. You’ve been studying Takarazuka for quite a while. What are your thoughts around it’s longevity? Have there been any changes in the way Japan relates to it?

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I don’t know about how “Japan relates” to the Revue, but the state has
certainly incorporated Takarazuka into its soft power policies in Asia and
elsewhere. It’s important to remember that the Revue is owned by the megamultinational Hankyu Corporation; Hankyu sold the Braves, its baseball team, in 1988 but kept the Revue as a major moneymaker. The Revue has an affluent niche audience, and the management has responded by creating a large number of commodities that generate lucrative sales. When I first started my Takarazuka research, the Revue did not sell videos of performances—one had to copy them from the occasional TV broadcast. Nor did they promote individual actors, which, at the time, conflicted with their more communal approach to advertising the Revue. But that was then, and today the neo-liberal capitalist impulse has worked to create multiple markets out of one! The “bromide” shop in the basement of the Tokyo Takarazuka theatre run by older fans, and others like it, have been displaced by the juggernaut Hankyu Corporation’s monopolization of Revue books, DVDs, photographs, T-shirts, confections, and the usual array of museum shop paraphernalia. There are still many independent fan clubs along with the official ones, and membership in them is practically the only way to get tickets. But in addition to the money that the Revue brings to Hankyu, the Revue also continues to spin escapist dream stories set in exotic locales for audiences who need a break
from life and work as usual, and who want to take a little piece of that home with them. A win-win combination!

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Indeed it is! Now Takarazuka Revue tickets are, at least apparently, available online, I imagine I’ll never get a seat at one again. ^_^

What do you think of Takarazuka City offering same-sex marriage certificates? Do you think it has any relationship to the (to me, obvious) lesbian fandom of Takarazuka Revue?

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I think that the same-sex marriage certificates offered by Takarazuka City in
2015, following the precedent set in Tokyo (Shibuya-ku and Setagaya-ku), has
much more to do with the progressive policies of the two-term female mayor,
Nakagawa Tomoko (b. 1947), than the fact that the Revue is located there. Mayor Nakagawa, who had served in the House of Representatives, was elected in 2009 after her predecessor was arrested on bribery charges and won re-election in 2013. She has been a member of opposition parties. After she introduced the same-sexmarriage certificates, a dominant party (LDP) colleague of hers claimed that Takarazuka City would become the hub of an HIV epidemic! He later retracted his statement and apologized! Ironically, the first applicants for the same-sex certificate provided by Shibuya-ku were former otokoyaku Maki Aura, whose real name is Higashi Koyuki, and her partner Masuhara Hiroko. Both run an information service in Tokyo for sexual minorities.

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And both have detailed their recent marriage ceremony at Disney in manga form, so we’re familiar with them here at Okazu.

Well this was fantastic, Jennifer, thank you for your time and your perspective on this unique institution.





Interview with Former Takararisienne Ako Dachs

July 17th, 2016

5e21f6b27399e70f17b225223aef2ff6_400x400Welcome to the beginning of Takarazuka Week here on Okazu! We’re starting off with something extremely exciting – an interview with former Takarasienne, Ako Dachs.

Ms. Dachs performed in Takarazuka under the name Natsumi Youko in Moon Troupe. She’s now living in New York, still working as a performer on TV,  movies and stage.  I’m excited as I can be to welcome her here to Okazu!

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1. Why did you want to join Takarazuka?
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My mother and grandmother were fans of Takarazuka and they took me to see it when I was very young. I was attracted by it immediately, and when I was ten years old I decided that I was determined to be a part of that company when I was old enough.

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2. What is your favorite memory from your time at Takarazuka? What show was your favorite to perform in?

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The favorite memory is when I was in my second year on stage with the company and had just started as an apprentice in Moon troop. There was an audition for the musical Oklahoma, and Ms. Gemze De Lappe, who had played a role called ‘a girl’ in the original production came to direct us. Ms. De Lappe wanted me to play Ado Annie, but Takarazuka had already chosen a star to play that role, so she gave me the role that she had played. I loved performing in that show, and I later became a featured singer and actress in the company.

But there were some other experiences that stood out: in two major productions I sang songs while legendary performers danced; Ms. Yachiyo Kasugano in Matoi Okesa, and Ms. Otome Amatsu in Ibaragi Doji My last show for Takarazuka was Goodbye Madeleine and the writer/director Mr. Shibata wrote a wonderful role for me.

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3. In your opinion, has there been any visible change in the way otokoyaku and musumeyaku roles are performed?

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Yes. Obviously the taller girls play otokoyaku – men’s roles, and in the last 30 years Japanese girls have become much taller, and that makes otokoyaku more handsome and attractive.

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4. What, if any, changes have you seen in Takarazuka fandom?

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These days Takarazuka fans seem to be more highly organized and disciplined than when I was there. I think it used to be a little less extreme, and very friendly and supportive. I’m still in touch with some of my fans from those days.

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5.What do you think of of overseas fandom? Is it different or the same? Are non-Japanese fans looking for the same things as Japanese fans, or completely different things?

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I know several Takarazuka fans in New York, and they seem to be much more subdued than some of the extreme fans I’ve seen in Japan. They are very supportive of those of us that have come here that they remember from Takarazuka even a long time ago.

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6) What is the secret to Takarazuka’s popularity in Japan and overseas? Have there been any changes in the way Japan relates to it?

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Takarazuka is, in a way, a mirror image of Kabuki in which men play all the roles, including the women’s roles, and the men who play women are the biggest stars. In Takarazuka women play all the roles, including the men’s roles and the women who play men are the biggest stars. Kabuki has 400 years of history in Japan, and the men who play women’s roles have inherited a long tradition of how to move, how to speak, and how to behave which is passed down from star to star over the centuries. In Takarazuka, which only has 100 years of history and a much more contemporary repertoire, the technique for the ‘Otokoyaku’ (the women who play men) is also inherited and developed by star after star. You need years of strict training and apprenticeship to work in both these traditions.

In both cases one gender is portraying a kind of idealized version of the other. I think this one of the most fascinating things about both these forms, and Takarazuka in particular – learning what men think the ideal woman is in Kabuki, or seeing women portray their ideal man in Takarazuka. Its no accident that so many women and girls wait in the huge crowds of fans to see their favorite performers after a show – they are attracted to them and sort of have crushes on them because they do represent a Japanese ideal of male beauty and gentlemanly behavior. We’re so used to seeing women through men’s eyes in this world, its refreshing to see men through women’s eyes for a change!

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Thank you very much for your time! This was fantastic.

Takarazuka will be performing Chicago at Lincoln Center this week. Tickets are still available for shows at the Lincoln Center box office, so get yours and experience the fantasy and glamour of Takarazuka for yourself!

Thanks to the folks at Lincoln Center and May Young for making this interview possible.





Interview with Josh Kaplan, Creator of Highway Blossoms

June 21st, 2016

key-art-with-solid-logoYesterday, I had a chance to read through the new Yuri Visual Novel, Highway Blossoms. And I generally found it to be good. Today, we welcome creator Josh Kaplan to Okazu to discuss the game. Welcome Josh!

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Are the any Japanese VNs that inspired HB? And what artistic influences inspire you, personally?
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For me at least, I generally take more inspiration from regular novels and fiction than anything else, if only because I read more books than I do VN’s. In particular, I love young adult fiction, and I think that HB fits under that umbrella. Recently I’ve been devouring just about everything by Siera Maley, and I also love The Gravity Between Us by Kristen Zimmer. There’s a doujin Yuri VN by Cosmilica, called Love, Guitars and the Nashville Skyline that is currently being localized by our publisher, and it also includes a lesbian pair on a roadtrip through the US. At the time that we started planning Highway Blossoms, though, we’d never heard of it. I’m looking forward to reading it, though, and the developer of that one is very fun to talk to.

I asked Syon, the other writer and the director for the project, and he said his biggest influence was the anime Trigun, as well as the film and novel Holes.

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Haha, so the whole desert location is sort of baked into Syon’s references then. ^_^

 The idea of the road trip is uniquely American. You’ve said elsewhere  that you’ve been to most of these places. Was it your intention to inspire fans to visit these places? It does seem a bit of  travelogue. ^_^
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I wouldn’t say that it was our intention to get people out and visiting these places, but it’s definitely a happy side effect. Hell, I was getting some wanderlust just as I was writing. We’ve had a number of fans say that they’re inspired to take a roadtrip now, though, and I think that’s awesome. We actually have a couple ideas to reward people who do go out and see these places after they read HB, but we’ve gotta see if they pan out, first.

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You mentioned in the Yuri Nation interview that you’re consuming a fair amount of contemporary lesbian work. What themes did reading/watching that inspire you to cover? I notice, for instance, that Amber starts out the story having had girlfriends already, so that “coming out”, which is so often a major theme in lesbian literature and entertainment is skipped over almost completely.
Is there anything you definitely did NOT want to do in the narrative?
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We specifically wanted to avoid the “b-but we’re both girls” trope that dominates most Yuri media. Not to belittle the difficulty and courage it takes to come out, but simply because there’s a lot of stories that deal with that out there already. Throughout the entire thing, nobody gives a second thought to the fact that the two girls are in a relationship – and that’s how we think it should be. Sadly, we know it’s a little idealistic right now.

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Music is a huge part of this story… do you have a story behind the music you mention in the narrative?
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The music that Amber listens to and talks about were meant to characterize her Grandfather more than anything, and the kind of person that he was. It’s also supposed to set Amber apart a little bit – she’s never heard of any of the bands that Marina likes. But as for those artists having personal significance to us in real life? Nah, not really.

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I thought the sex scene interesting, rather than sexy, per se…what was your thinking behind the way that was handled? 
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Having the sex scenes be a part of character development and not just fanservice was definitely intentional. Especially with the first one – it sets up a lot of important things that happen later. You can also see how Amber misinterprets some of what’s going on or just assumes things about Marina that aren’t quite true. The second sex scene is definitely a happier, lighter one and is supposed to be kind of silly, not just erotic. Both as consumers and developers, we prefer sex scenes that feel like they mean something, rather than just being tossed in there.

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What themes or messages do you hope folks will take away from playing Highway Blossoms?
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Like I mentioned, I think the big theme is simply that “love is love,” no matter who you are or who you fall in love with. Recent events have been a tragic reminder that not everyone is on the same page there yet, but I hope that every day we get a little bit closer to that. There’s also the recurring notion that everyone deserves to be happy, and that you deserve to allow yourself to be happy.

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Any last thing you want to say to fans?

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I’d just like to emphasize that 2016 has been and is a great year for Yuri media in the West. Aside from HB, there have been titles like Starlight Vega, Rising Angels, and A Little Lily Princess, that have all had releases this year. There are also some interesting looking upcoming ones like Alpha’s Adventures. I know that HB isn’t for everyone, but hopefully all Yuri fans will find a new game that they love this year.

I think that’s just about everything. I’ve said it a lot, but thank you! =)

Thank you Josh and best of luck with Highway Blossoms and future projects!